A Retrospective on the Great Recession: Causes, Effects and Prospects

Abstract

The term crisis is missing from the title of this analysis on purpose, as it is, in all likelihood, among the most abused terms used to describe global and domestic economic developments since the US subprime and the Lehman collapse. This in as far as it denotes an ephemeral phenomenon, a temporary deviation from the norm to which conditions are expected to revert. In turn, while it is universally hoped that economies do return to a path to prosperity, the sequence of events that has shaken the world since 2007 is much more accurately described as continuous, deterministic and evolutionary, rather than accidental and discrete break-downs of limited time span. The lessons and implications should also be interpreted under this light.